"Memphir has fallen," Varta's voice sounded rusty in her own ears. She
had spoken so seldom during the last lonely months. "Evil has risen to
overwhelm our world, even as it was prophesied in Your Revelations, O,
Ruler of Worlds and Maker of Destiny. Therefore, obeying the order given
of old, I would depart from this, Thy house. Suffer me now to fulfill
the Law--"
Three times she prostrated her slim body on the stones at the foot of
Asti's judgment chair. Then she arose and, with the confidence of a
child in its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched
hand of Asti. Beneath her flesh the stone was not cold and hard, but
seemed to have an inner heat, even as might a human hand. For a long
moment she stood so and then she raised her hand slowly, carefully, as
if within its slight hollow she cupped something precious.
[Illustration]
And, as she drew her hand away from the grasp of Asti, the tiny sun and
its planets followed, spinning now above her palm as they had above the
statue's. But out of the cowled figure some virtue had departed with the
going of the miniature solar system; it was now but a carving of stone.
And Varta did not look at it again as she passed behind its bulk to seek
a certain place in the temple wall, known to her from much reading of
the old records.
Having found the stone she sought, she moved her hand in a certain
pattern before it so that the faint radiance streaming from the tiny
sun, gleamed on the grayness of the wall.
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